Project Archon
Project Archon is a text-based RPG created by Vikare and in development under Bossmango. It is a dungeon crawler written in Java and based in the Starfall campaign setting, heavily influenced by Zork and Dungeons and Dragons. A repository and bug tracker for the project is currently maintained on GitHub . History Vikare started developing Archon in mid-September of 2014. It extended the D&D 5e character generator that he had made before it, intending to build off of those systems to create a full game. He hoped to develop his skills and have a side-project to work on throughout the year. Earlier prototypes were frequently refactored, with the source code sometimes being scrapped completely between versions. Originally the game's systems were based heavily around 5e Dungeons and Dragons, much like the campaign setting it was built around. This was evident in the number of derived and rolled stats found throughout the game. While many of these systems are still present, others have been replaced with simpler, more elegant solutions. As of December 2014 the game was in a somewhat playable state, featuring reliable character generation, random map generation, and more functional combat. After the transition to Bossmango the game was refactored to make better use of object oriented programming, as well as the potential for loading resource files. Most of it's original features were lost in translation but the game has become far more robust. This version of the engine is intended to be the final incarnation. In 2015 Archon was refactored yet again to run in a GUI rather than run through command line. It still maintained it's text-based format but now boasted a more powerful formatter capable of fonts, colors, and sized text. The new GUI is still under construction and has comprised most of the workload in 2015 alongside rebuilding the combat and mapgen systems. Various utilities, such as console logging and a global settings system, were put in place to aid future development and testing. Resource Framework The Bossmango builds use external resource files to build a variety of objects. Everything from rooms to enemies and items are loaded from a set of JSON files. This removes the need to hard code different types of weapons or armor and the allows for any arbitrary number of specifications to be loaded at runtime. The resources directory is user specified in a config file and defaults to a resources folder in the same directory as the JAR file. Anyone can add new files to this folder that will be loaded alongside vanilla resources provided that they follow specifications. This is meant to aid future content development efforts and allow people to easily contribute new resources to the final game. Gallery archontest3.png|The player assigns their random stats to their ability scores archontest2.png|An early test of the random item generator Archon test.png|The character summary and introduction screen archontest4.png|An early version of the main game interface with enemy stats listed below the player's Test 1.png|The first entity generated under the new Bossmango revisions. Made with Skeleton.json, Archer.json, and the 3 item files. Category:Creations